Reliance Capital Blog

Reliance Capital, India's Berkshire Hathaway

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Reliance Capital full year profit up 20%

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's financial services arm reliance capital on Monday reported a 20 per cent rise in its full-year net profit to Rs 646 crore on the back of robust growth in its insurance and mutual fund businesses.

The company's total revenue rose 36 per cent to Rs 884 crore in the year ended March 31, from Rs 652 crore in the previous fiscal.

On consolidated basis, Reliance Capital's net profit rose 23 per cent to Rs 703 crore and total income more than doubled to Rs 2,158 crore in the fiscal with an increase of 128 per cent from Rs 947 crore in FY05-06.

At a meeting held today, the company's board of directors also approved the payment of a dividend of Rs 3.50 per share on equity shares with face value of Rs 10 each for the financial year ended March 31.

The company said in a statement that its total assets stood at Rs 6,769 crore (1.55 billion dollar), while its net worth rose to Rs 5,262 crore as on March 31, 2007, as against Rs 4,122 crore a year ago.

Reliance Capital ranks among the top 3 Indian private sector financial services groups in terms of net worth, it said.

Its investment portfolio as on march 31, amounted to Rs 2,434 crore (558.5 million dollars) and it had no non-performing assets, the company said.

Among the group companies, Reliance asset management recorded a net profit of Rs 49 crore with a 63 per cent increase in the year.

The number of investors in reliance mutual fund increased to 32.27 lakhs from 20.95 lakhs a year ago, Reliance Capital said.

The assets under management of RMF increased 88 per cent to Rs 46,307 crore (10.62 billion dollar) at the end of the fiscal from Rs 24,670 crore a year ago, while making it the country's largest fund house.

Besides, the premium income for Reliance Life Insurance unit in the year jumped 348 per cent in the fiscal to Rs 1,005 crore from Rs 224 crore in the previous year.

The company expanded its distribution network to 217 branches from 153 branches at the end of previous fiscal, while it also has approval from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to start additional 130 branches.

The number of agents at the end of the year stood at 106,337 as against 20,231 agents at the end of previous year, over four-fold jump during the year.

For Reliance General Insurance, the gross direct premium for the year rose to Rs 912 crore from Rs 163 crore in the previous year, representing an increase of 462 per cent.

The distribution network for the general insurance business increased to 85 branches from just 20 branches at the end of March 31, 2006.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Reliance Cap sets up arm in Singapore

In the first instance of an Indian asset management company going global, the Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Capital has set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Singapore as a part of its plans to invest in global assets.

The subsidiary is raising its initial corpus of $100 million from institutional investors.

While UTI, the only other prominent wholly Indian-owned mutual fund, has a subsidiary in Dubai, its investment focus is primarily India. Reliance Capital, on the other hand, has drawn up plans to manage global assets over the next two to three years.

Reliance Capital’s mutual fund business is the country’s largest with close to Rs 47,665 crore assets under management.

Reliance Capital has a presence in the life and general insurance, private equity and asset reconstruction businesses

A source close to the development said, “This is the first step towards establishing a global asset management business. Over the next 2 to 3 years, the company can be expected to invest in assets across the world.”

The first fund will, however, invest in Indian assets.

“The first fund will be an India focussed fund and will invest across sectors in India,” sources said. Reliance executives, however, declined to comment.

The company has received approvals from the Sebi and the Monetary Authority of Singapore to set up the fund.